Effects of Spring Freeze Damage and Training Systems on the Viticulture Performance of Young ‘Marquette’ Grapevines

‘Marquette’ is a cold-hardy hybrid grape cultivar that has received increased attention for its use in wine production in the upper midwestern and northeastern United States since it was released in 2006. However, ‘Marquette’ is an early budburst cultivar susceptible to spring freeze damage. We examined the influence of high wire bilateral flat cane (HWC) and four-arm Kniffin (4AK) training systems on young ‘Marquette’ performance during a year with spring freeze damage (2017) and the subsequent season without frost events (2018). In 2017, there were two consecutive spring frost events at the experimental site approximately 2 weeks after the vines reached 50% budburst, which damaged more than 70% of the shoots. The percentage of freeze-damaged shoots and the severity of freeze damage to green tissues did not differ between training systems, but 4AK vines had higher yield at harvest (5.16 kg/vine or 3.12 tons/acre) than HWC vines (3.45 kg/vine or 2.10 tons/acre) because of the greater number of buds retained at winter pruning. There was no freeze damage close to budburst in 2018, and the yield of 4AK vines was still higher (11.74 kg/vine or 7.08 tons/acre) than that of HWC vines (8.20 kg/vine or 4.98 tons/acre). In 2018, the Ravaz index (yield-to-pruning weight) values were lower for HWC vines (3.41) than for 4AK vines (5.39), but the training system did not consistently affect fruit composition in either vintage. Within the 4AK system, shoots that emerged from the lower cane had more freeze damage than those of the upper cane and produced lower crop yield and fruit with lower soluble sugars in both vintages. Our results suggest that ‘Marquette’ vines can be grown on a training system with high cropping potential, such as a divided canopy system or a single canopy, with a higher number of buds and shoots than that of our study. Among divided canopy systems, 4AK might not be the best option for vigorous ‘Marquette’ vines because, in addition to greater susceptibility to freeze damage, the lower cane of 4AK was highly shaded by the upper highly vegetative canopy, which might have caused its lower productivity and soluble sugars at harvest compared with those of the upper cane.